Ariana Mamiko Miyamoto is a Japanese model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Universe Japan 2015. She represented Japan at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant and placed in the top 10. She was the first hāfu woman to be Miss Japan.
She was born in Nagasaki, Japan on May 12, 1994. Her mother is Japanese and her father, Bryant Stanfield, is an African American ex-serviceman who met Miyamoto’s mother while stationed at Sasebo, Nagasaki, when he was in the US Navy. Ariana grew up in Japan, but briefly went to live with her father in the US from the age of 15 to 18, after which she moved back.
Throughout her childhood Ariana stood out as a mixed race person within the mono-ethnicity of Japan. She was called “Hafu” — the Japanese term for an “inbetweener” — someone who is not regarded as fully Japanese or fully foreign. “I have lived in Japan all my life, but when I say I am Japanese, people say, you can’t be,” Miyamoto told the BBC. “They don’t believe it.”
Miyamoto’s life took a turn when she decided to enter a Japanese beauty contest. She didn’t think she would win, with her heritage, but then a close multiracial friend of hers committed suicide, and she felt that she had to do something about it. She did, when, to the surprise of the whole country, she won. On March 12, 2015, the 5’ 8” beauty was crowned Miss Universe Japan.
Well done!!
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